Improved healthcare for subsidised patients

'....I do know many private specialists who have big hearts ( and I am proud to call them "friend" )and who treat poorer patients at reduced rates ( or even waive charges). Sometimes we put on leotards and become Robin Hoods. We in private practice, often try to find ways to beat the Private hospital system in order to reduce patients' charges. The more obvious means include pleading with the hospital for discounts ( for patients) or even going to cheaper hospitals. Other ways cannot be divulged publicly.....' The above is an extract from Dr Huang Shoou Chyuan's blog, nofearsingapore.blogspot.com. He has written an appeal in the media's forum and copied to MOH to suggest on cost reduction and improvement in medical practice. If we have more medical professionals to step out to stamp this ridiculous and incessant rise in medical fees, they will definitely make an impact. For a start, private hospitals can price some services or ward charges lower than govt hospitals to show that it can be done. This will definitely rattle the conventional wisdom that medical cost must always go up. A case in point is Perfect Dental Clinic in Ghim Moh. I believe its charges are very competitive and should be a role model for all dental clinics to emulate. If he can charge at those competitive rates, why can't other dental clinics do so with the same facilities and qualifications for the same treatment? Private hospitals should take the lead to cut cost and blow its trumpets loudly. This is a social service and a social cause that they can together do for the average citizens.

Smiles in English signboards

Cocktail lounge, Norway: LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR. On the main road to Mombassa, leaving Nairobi: TAKE NOTICE: WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER, THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE. On a poster at Kencom: ARE YOU AN ADULT THAT CANNOT READ? IF SO WE CAN HELP. In a cemetery: PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES. Tokyo hotel's rules and regulations: GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIOURS IN BED. In a Tokyo bar: SPECIAL COCKTAILS FOR THE LADIES WITH NUTS. Hotel, Yugoslavia: THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID. Hotel, Japan: YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID. In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery: YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY. Hotel, Zurich: BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE. A laundry in Rome: LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME.

Citi and Morgan Stanley merging brokerages

The two giants are merging their operations in the face of the financial meltdown. The brokerages and their staff will have to shrink in a shrinking business. How would this affect the local brokerages? Will our brokerages shrink as well given the shrinking business in stock trading? Stockbroking, buying and selling of properties, insurances are the last few professions that allow people who can't find employments or do not want to be employees to be self employed. Of course there is taxi driving but this is a very difficult trade with the recession hitting the economy. When these three professions start to retrench, more will be out looking for jobs. The last frontier is to start your own business as entrepreneurs, provided you have a few hundred thousands of spare cash to play with. It is no longer possible to sell kueh and goreng pisangs along the corridors. It is against the law. But one can take the risk of selling pirated VCDs if one does not mind being handcuffed when caught. The loanshark business is still thriving and they need more midnight graffiti painters. Maybe the casinos can provide more jobs for those who are not bound by their religious and moral righteousness. For a start, Boon Wan has offered several thousand jobs in the medical industry. Just go for retraining.

Eerie silence in the world of elite

Are there any talents, thinkers and concerned individuals in the world of elite? Obviously there are plentiful. Do they have a view or any view on how our country and society is progressing and the direction we are heading? I think they must have. Do they agree with all the policies and what is happening? I think they do. That is why there is a total silence coming out from that world. Nothing will affect them or move them to say something. They are just too comfortable and too entrenched in their own world of luxury that nothing else is important to them. How long will this eerie silence last?

When the wheel of fortune stopped turning

2008 ended with the wheel of fortune stopped turning. The first financial crisis that hit the people was the minibond. The bigger financial crisis hitting the people without much fanfare was the collapse of stock prices. The losses were in hundreds of billions. Came 2009, the year started with mean testing. What does it mean? The first answer probably is the torching incident. Now the country is staring at a bigger crisis, recession and job losses, unemployment, defaults in paying mortgages. We are only in the second week of the new year. What more lie in store for us and how bad could things be?